March for Babies - Year 5

Dear family and friends,

For the fifth time this year we will be participating on the March of Dimes March for Babies Walk, this coming Saturday, April 28th.

On November 1, 2004 and almost three months before he was due, our little boy Nicolas was born - he spent a total of 81 days in intensive care. We spent our days visiting Nico at the hospital – the first month trekking north to Boston where he was born. He suffered from a variety of complications due to his prematurity, and throughout it all we put on brave faces each day, and prayed feverishly each night that he would come home to us healthy, and happy, and whole. We felt so lucky the day he finally came home, January 21, 2005.

We created this blog when he was born to chronicle our story online and share with family and friends. There were/are many others. Prematurity is a big problem in the U.S. and the March of Dimes is one small way for us to help.

We will keep walking and I hope you all will consider supporting us – for every little bit helps, $1 or $5 per family is all we ask - every $ counts for this great cause... your gift would support March of Dimes research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. And it will be used to bring comfort and information to families with a baby in newborn intensive care which was our case 7 years ago.

Visit our page at http://www.marchforbabies.org/marthaeh – it’s easy and quick!

Thank you :)

Eric, Martha, Nico and Chloe Meier

March of Dimes March for Babies

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Dear family and friends,

We are walking again this year to raise money for the March of Dimes. They do a lot to support people who have premature babies - like us and our Nico back in 2004. Please consider any donation you can manage to help.

Thank you :)
Eric, Martha, Nico and Chloe Meier

Above are some photos of our 2008, 2009 and 2010 walks...

>>> OUR MARCH OF DIMES PAGE

Happy New Year 2011!

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We had a great time in Venezuela this year. Above are some of our holiday photos. There are more photos to see if you're interested; some street graffiti in Caracas, some food we ate, and the baptism of our daughter Chloe Elena.

Wishing all a Happy and Prosperous 2011!

Chloe Meier (From hospital to home)

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Chloe Meier

Sunday 12:22pm 7 lbs 1 oz

Moms water broke at approximately 6am - off to Boston we went.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Nicolas gets fitted for a tuxedo for Tina's upcoming wedding. Crazy how big he is now.

Ultrasound 30 weeks

Ultrasound ultracool - but the babys eyes are not really open it's just the ultrasound reading through the layers. Our baby is looking good. We have a nickname given to us by Nico: "Let's call the baby Oatmeal...then we can call it Otie!" It's stuck for now.

Coming this summer

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Belly photos. Hi again. We are going to be posting more to the blog now as our family is poised to add another member this coming August. :-)

Another Day Gone By

I haven't written a song since 2002 but for some reason this tune came to me and I began to think of my dad who's birthday was approaching - he would've been 78. So I finished it. For him and for me.

DOWNLOAD/PLAY THE SONG

Recorded in my basement with Garageband on a Macbook and just the laptop microphone. 2 guitars + bass and vocals. Drums are fake.

//lyrics:

another day gone by... that i've wasted another day gone by... and i can’t seem to face it this time.... i’ve been trying | another month gone by... and i’m busted another month gone by... and it seems such a waste and i've been trying | with all u left me here well sometimes i’m inclined... to pack it up and toss away | and when u left me here well sometimes i seem fine... and in my head i'm a world away

another year gone by... and i notice another year gone by and i can’t seem to shake that all the time has gone by | and all u left me here well sometimes i’m inclined... to pack it up and toss away | and with u lying there well sometimes i'm reminded... memory of u when u waved... goodbye | u waved goodbye

July 5, 2009

Nico's new song

Nico started singing this song right after breakfast the other day and I was lucky to catch this on video. Rockin' at the age of 4!

Holiday Post 2008/2009

It's been weeks since I've had to get up with Nicolas in the morning. Each day he gets up, walks into Tina's, Mabe's or Nacho's room and annoys them until they wake. He's gotten his fill of playing with toys whereever, watching spanish kids programs and learning the songs from "Mamma Mia". He's prone to walking without shoes whenever possible and has gotten his fill of "white cheese" which is a staple here.

This vacation was fun with parties, fine food, dancing, beach, and movies. We stayed in the city more this year than in previous years but got out to enjoy friends and family and things Venezuelan.

Click here to see photos of food consumed in Venezuela.
(WARNING: this will make you hungry) :-)

You can see some of the photos I took of Caracas here.

These are the holiday pictures.

It's been a restful fun time here. My skin is happy to not be in the cold but alas Thursday we are back to north america -- but warmed by the fact that George Bush is gone as of the 20th and with a promise that Obama can get it done. :-)

This is my first story of 2009

New years activities started at 10pm with frozen blue margaritas which I make for all at the Hernandez home in Caracas - 3 drinks and having watched multiple spanish karaoke songs later I am drawn to go online again - when my brother-in-law walks by and says something like "Loser... get off the computer it's New Years" - so downstairs I go to blend more margaritas - fireworks over the city of Caracas at midnight - we sit to eat dinner 1am (now 7 margaritas + 2 glasses of champagne)

My young in-laws are planning to go to a club called "Sawu". I decide this is a great idea - Martha is too tired - she stays - so out the rest of us go and dance - I have 3 vodka tonics - club is packed - beautiful Venezuelan soap opera stars - there's table service and smoking allowed inside - wow great reggaeton + merengue - it's 540am when we leave - the sun is rising - we're back in the house at 6am and I crash til 1pm - awake with "Raton" - spanish for hangover - I am lazy all day - recover around 4pm with delicious lentil soup I made yesterday then a champagne toast at 9pm with jamon serrano.

:-)
happy new year!

Summer 2008 Wrap-Up

It flew by. And we are grateful for packing in as much activity as possible. I golfed a lot more this year than last year - and won a Nike Driver at the RISD Golf Tournament. Nico started a new school Brown/Fox Point -- (SPECIAL THANKS TO LEARNING BROOKE for 3 years of watching Nico - especially Miss Patty, Miss Melinda, Miss Nicole, Miss Melissa, Miss Daniele, Miss Cheryl and Miss Kate)

This summer: Groton Long Point, Crabbing, Sea Canoeing, Mystic Aquarium, Boston Museum of Science, NYC, Picnic at Colt State Park, Big Apple Circus, Campfire on the Beach, Westport Vineyards, Iggys, Wall-e, Kung Fu Panda, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Kite Flying Sea Swirl, Beethoven's Fifth at Tanglewood, East Matunuck Beach, Amherst, Eric Carle Museum, Cookout with the Soriano Family, Waterfire, Champlin's, Dinner with family at Harbourside, What Cheer Brigade Concert, Block Island and Newport.

Bye Summer. Fall is here.

July 4th weekend 2008

The holiday weekend was a fun festival for us - and it makes a worthy post i think. It started thursday morning - with me golfing my uncle Ralph at Melody Hills - 18 holes - then at night we all went to Iggys for a nice "lobstah" roll with clamcakes and "chowdah".

Friday:
On the 4th we went to visit our friends Liz and Scott at their mom's house on Groton Long Point - which is a great area geographically - you can see Long Island right from her porch. There we had a nice lunch, watched a parade go by (as cars went by they threw candy at nicolas who scooped it up), then we went crabbin' (this involves a clothspin - some string - a mashed-up mussel and lots of skill). We caught a bunch of crabs - then went canoeing for a bit and then a swim, at the end of the day - Nicolas passed out in the car. So Martha and I went went to The Sea Swirl for some fine shrimp (tasty).

Saturday:
We went to the mall (it was raining) and watched Wall-e.
Our second viewing - go see it.

Sunday:
We went to Westport River Vineyards, sampled some good wines and had a picnic - then we were off to Horseneck Beach where we flew a kite. Dinner was at Evelyn's in Tiverton RI - another great seafood meal.

Happy 4th! Here's to freedom!

MORE JULY 4th PICTURES HERE!!

watercolor sketches - 2008

These are 2 watercolors that I made while in venezuela this past january. I thank the gods of rum and coke for preventing me from feeling the 50+ mosquito bites I suffered in the process (see previous post).

:-)

a horsebarn



mountainview




I can't say i am really enjoying watercolors over oils - I am so messy with them - but it's the only way i get to work non-computer-wise anymore. I am only getting to paint every year or so... I think it would get better with practice. :-)

The last ones I made two years ago both won awards at the Providence Art Club, which surprised me. I don't think I ever posted them here as my dad had his stroke that year. Will post them soon.

Bill Gilbert

A friend of mine from RISD passed away last weekend having fought cancer for a year.

Read this blogpost to get a sense of how special he was to those who knew him.
http://frankgardner.blogspot.com/2008/02/bill-gilbert-1964-2008.html

Here is a photo of Bill at our 20th reunion in 2006 - having fallen out of touch over the years - it was a treat to spend time with him again. (from left to right, Mark Goodkin, Bill Gilbert (sticking tongue out), Brad Foltz and me – Eric Meier



He dressed like a biker - leather, mustache, skull rings - but was truly a gentleman in the best sense and the world is a lesser place without Bill in it. I am heartbroken as all who knew him are.


His online obit is here.

venezuela 2008

It's been a solid comfortable time in Caracas this year. Unlike last year - no sick little boy. We have discovered the show "Heroes" thanks to marathon watching of a boxed set of season 1 my brother-in-law has. We got so addicted to it that we took them with us to a camp/resort (that we spent 5 days at) and through the use of the camp projector in our cabin - did not lose track of the story.

Other travel benefits to Venezuela include: great food, seeing friends, parties with music and musical instruments, getting to play the Venezuelan Cuatro, eating steaks, arepas, tequeños, drinking whiskey, fine rums, and snacking on Flips cereal.

Highlights for me include: trying to make watercolors work and enduring 53 mosquito bites in the process (really. I counted. I didn't feel a thing while getting them though - thanks cuba libre! - the next day they started itching and made red marks - see photo)



I've been shooting more photos with new lumix camera - here are some samples - signs in venezuela (flikr gallery)

Nicolas is talking more and more - constructing sentences and describing what he wants now. It's in broken spanglish which makes it all the more endearing.
His highlights include: swimming on his own with floaties, riding a horse, riding in a pickup truck, petting horses, seeing water buffalos close-up, playing with dogs, holding a stick bug, sleeping in hammocks, playing timbals, and maracas and bongo drums.









>>>MORE PHOTOS HERE (flikr gallery)

we've had a time here in Caracas. now back to the grey.

summer 2007

this is a photo of me and nicolas taken this summer at the beach. he's growing like crazy and now says "wassis? all the time - which we translate into "what's this?". his eating has improved and he now eats hot dogs, arepas, pasta with a cream sauce, not all at once.

we had a good summer. will post more information later

CLICK HERE FOR SOME MORE PICTURES

-eric

cupcake

hi all - been crazy busy.
This is a photo cartoon I made of nicolas last week eating a cupcake! I used a program called Comic LIfe (http://plasq.com/comiclife) which comes with every Mac i guess ( I discovered it on my iMac hard drive)



Martha became an american citizen last week! (insert patriotic music here)
This cupcake was one made for a party that her co-workers threw for her.

:-)

CARACAS!!! land of arepas and scotch

we arrived on the 18th thinking we were to head to the coast for some beach and 2 days later nicolas got a weird sounding cough. so we went to the clinic where they took blood and x-rayed his chest to find he had bronchial pneumonia (the beginnings of it) so we began treating him with around-the-clock medicines and therefore no beach. no nice beach. argh.


well that's life though eh? we had a fine christmas and took him out to malls as he got better and he now rules the hernandez household. entertaining us with song and dancing to any music he hears.

the social life here is active and we are enjoying seeing friends and family. we were up late celebrating the beginning of 2007 and nicolas even got excited about all the fireworks in caracas.
photos here include:

nicolas learning karaoke with his godmother - feeding carrots to a camel in the petting zoo and playing with santa`s hat - which was an outfit for the hernandez beagle. :-)

One of my favorite Nico summer stories....

This is a photo of one of my favorite stories about Nicolas. It happened in August when Martha's mom and sister were visiting us (i have alot of posts to make to catch us up to October).

We were on Block Island for the day having a great lunch and giant margaritas (yes!) at the Spring House Hotel. While there we let Nico run up and down a giant hill that the hotel is on. I helped him walk up and down this big hill twice - at his insistance. We started walking back to the Ferry and Nico was so excited and he was grabbing onto the bar of the stroller so he could sit right up.

And then the very next minute when we checked on him - this is how we found him.

We stopped in Ben & Jerry's and i took this photo.:-)

Summer's heatwave

Newport 2 weekends(?) ago. The Foltz family in town for a wedding and we meet to eat Ben & Jerrys on the pier.

Nicolas and we spent the better part of this weekend indoors in the air conditioning sheltered from the non-global-warming heatwave that has made this year the warmest in recorded history in the US. So these photos are from the past 2 weekends or more. :-)
PICTURE GALLERY HERE
hopefully no password needed.

Today Nico enjoyed a 2 hour nap on the sofa - normally he's in the pack 'n' play. So it was his first Sunday-afternoon-sofa-nap and boy he loved it. And was grumpy when we woke him. Naturally. :-)

Summer begins

Nico has been doing all sorts of new things so much so that it's hard to track them. His vocabulary has grown. (UPDATED)

in spanish: zapato, agua (pronounced aqua), mami (not mommy), hola, quack-quack, carro and casa (pronounced calah), pie, alla, tete, tina (pronounced ina), coco, gracias

in english: star, ball, dada, eat, bye, hi, hello, up, grandma (pronounced manma), apple, yum, all done, clock... and he also repeats a lot of new words

Two Nico stories:
2 weeks ago martha was changing Nico in the bathroom preparing him for a bath - when he opened doors under the bathroom sink just enough to pee into the cupboard. :-)

We were with friends who have a little girl (2 years old) and we were changing Nicolas in front of her. When she saw Nico naked she pointed and said "big one! big one!".

:-)

-- more later

Nico walks!

we picked him up at daycare and they told us he had walked around all day - and sure enough he continued that when he got home. :-)

watch it!

AIN't NO MoUNTAIN hIGH ENough....!!

see Nicolas climb the stairs

Nicolas is getting to be a little devil sometimes. You see, he loves to sit on the first few stairs on the staircase and bang on them to get our attention. If we choose to come, he climbs the stairs and if we choose not to come, he climbs the stairs. Either way he's going up. :-)

OTHER THINGS: We have all been pretty sick lately here. Got food poisoned last weekend so we were wiped out and in addition to that, Nico got 2 ear infections. Grumpy times. But it's getting better. He's beginning to eat some solid foods - mostly goldfish crackers - but we are hopeful. He is refusing to walk still which is curious - but that doesn't stop him from getting around.


MORE PICTURES HERE

that's it for now.

nico gets around

We have had a slow time trying to recover our lives and Nico has been helping us by : refusing to eat at night, climbing up the stairs, repeating words like "carro" and "agua", throwing balls and chasing them, pushing the kitchen chairs around, occasionally standing on his own, pouring all our tupperware onto the kitchen floor, clapping his hands together, picking his nose, and putting his toys into our baskets and on our bookshelves. Thanks Nico -- I am certain your granddad is very entertained by you as are we.

gone fishing

My father died on Saturday afternoon the 18th of February.
There is nothing I can write that comes close to the loss we are feeling.

his obituary

This is a photo of me and my dad on the day of my civil wedding to Martha August 28th, 1999.

my dad

it's been awhile since i posted. my dad had a massive stroke a few weeks ago and has had severe complications which means he won't be coming home. we are arranging for him to enter a hospice facility. it is a very sad time for us all.

Happy New Year! South American Style!

Man it's good to have a new year don't you think?


Nicolas stayed up late to celebrate our new year at a beach resort on the venezuelan coast that Martha's brother recommended (he works there) . Nicolas had a great time at the beach. He loved the ocean and the pool and the sand and all of it. Me? I loved the pina coladas and snorkling and... well pretty much everything.



We had a fine christmas too with Nicolas playing baby jesus during a neighborhood Mass. All the neighbors here gather for caroling venezuelan style (involves drums and a cuatro) and then we have treats. A great idea all around. Nicolas is the rock star of our venezuelan tour and get's plenty of attention whereever we go.

Time is flying by and soon we are back to lack-of-sleep lives and cold weather but for now we are spending the next few days enjoying caracas with martha's family and hopefully getting in some more hammock nap-time.

:-)

caracas!

nicolas was an angel on the plane. really. he slept and was fine considering we ended up with a 9 hour layover in Atlanta ( thanks Delta!) the damn pilot showed up 3 hours late.

but things are nice and warm here - blue sky and green tropical plants
we are off to the beach tomorrow and will stay there for 5 days or so. i will try to post photos later.

i have taken some fine long naps and feel rested (finally).we have eaten well and have had lots of attention from all the venezuelans.

nicolas is surrounded by women all the time and he loves it

more later

ps - my server went down and i lost some photos

Winter ills + peace

Nicolas with his new sweater made by grandma :-)

These past few weeks have been filled with Christmas rushing to get all things done and prepare for our holiday. Nicolas and Me and Martha have been stricken with the dreaded stomach bug which wiped out the lost continent of Atlantis (kidding it just wiped us out - but man it could've wiped out Atlantis ok?)

ugh and ugh. I've been inhaling gatorade to rehydrate.


Nicolas is standing on all things immobile and some that are mobile (to his surprise) - some bumps here and there. All normal we suppose but tough to see. He has a cool habit of walking a kitchen chair around the kitchen - and if i weren't so sick and overworked i would've posted a video clip. so there. maybe i will soon. by then he could be walking on his own for all i know.

peace be with you all :-)

eric + martha + nicolas

birthday, halloween and more

FAO Schwartz

NEWFall photo gallery

yes I have been slacking. so here's whats new.

Nicolas is now holding himself up in the crib and happy to do so. He turned one. (thanks to all for the gifts and cards - we are late with the thank you notes). We had a party for him and he was dressed like a space shuttle pilot. He did NOT eat any cake and cried when we sang "happy birthday" to him. On halloween he was dressed as a SNOW monkey and helped us answer the door.

We all went to Rochester NY, two weekends ago where I gave a presentation on web design. And we were in NYC this past weekend were I met Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson (at a risd event) and also - in another celebrity related event - John Cusack walked right by us up near central park (man he's tall).

Thats all for now. look at the pictures.


Nicolas on his b-birthday


Nicolas on a swing in Washington Square Park


Nicolas on Halloween


Nicolas trying to get out. :-)

poor updating

i have been lazy. with this blog and nuts with other things. but i will make an effort tonight.

daycare for nicolas + crawling

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VIDEO - Nicolas crawls forward
(he's been going backwards for awhile so it's big deal ok?)
View it!!!

hola - long time no posting busy busy. And now that he's moving he's a lot more to handle. :-) Yes Nicolas moves now - and he's picking up speed. So now we have to really keep our eyes on him and watch where he goes. He also shakes his head "no" but we aren't quite sure he really understands "no" yet.

And he's really keen on grabbing stuff and proving the theory of gravity over and over again.

He seems to have adjusted to daycare. We haven't though. It's hard to leave him there - but then the staff always says that he's having a great time -- and it seems that when we leave him he's excited to be playing with all the toys there. He's not even sympathy crying much and they all say that's a good sign. The staff also said he's pretty independent and that makes us feel better.

It's coming up on his birthday soon and time is flying by. Man oh man. We can't believe it.

like a wildfire

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I can't believe that 15 days have gone by since my last post.
Wow -- how the fall is rushing by.

I wish I could report that we were enjoying ourselves with it - but we have been swamped with work. It's good to have it - and we need to focus on it while we can. They are some exciting projects really -- but leaving us little time to go apple picking and other such fun treks.

This past week Nicolas spent his first day at daycare. And then immediately got sick, and then so did I, my mom and martha. It spreads like a wild fire. And that has made us all grumpy and my lawn is looking very neglected.

Last weekend Martha's neighbors from caracas were here in RI to settle their son into New England Tech and we ate brunch at 20 water street (photo above). Nothing fancy there breakfast-wise but a great view on a nice day. I hope this cold passes quickly and we all recover to enjoy the cool days soon.

FIRST CRACKER!!!

This is a special report: nicolas has eaten a cracker ALL BY HIMSELF!
We were doing yard work and nicolas was hanging out with us and martha went to get a cracker for herself and casually gave one to nicolas for him to hold. AND HE ATE IT!
VIEW IT NOW

the big apple

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VIDEO CLIP! (August 3,2005)

Well it's been a while since I've posted and the hurricane and our governments lame response to it has sapped most of my energy. It sickens me to realize how utterly helpless we really are. How unprepared we are as a nation to cope with this sort of emergency. How thoughtless the people in charge truly are. How the emperor slept while Rome burned.

Martha and I are lucky that we were not in New Orleans as we were last year, check out our photos of what was a remarkable city. Maybe they will rebuild it and Nicolas will be able to see it someday.

ON A HAPPIER NOTE -- we spent those last few days of Martha's sister Mabe's visit getting some good things in. His first day on the beach and his first trip to NYC. We even went to the Apple store (see above) where Nicolas selected his first Mac and Ipod. I told him if he is reeeaaallly good for 10 years then I will consider it.

He's beginning to make new sounds this week -figuring out how to use his tongue. We have to raise the bar on the crib now as he has attempted escape too many times now. I am going to be babyproofing very soon i suspect.
:-)

the world is his oyster...er...crepe

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VIDEO CLIP! (August 3,2005)


Nicolas is now 15 lbs. Early Intervention came by to weigh him and measure him and although he's small he's doing fine. He's about to eat a crepe (clearly marked as his) that his Tia Mabe made for him (see photo above). :-) In addition, he has migrated to more solids - eating bananas and pears and rice cereal and sweet potatoes and carrots. His favorite seems to be pears so far.

Last weekend we went to Rockport, MA and walked around with him. We ate some lobsters in front of him and he didn't seem to mind at all. This week we went into the Discovery store in Faneuil Hall and he really enjoyed it. I think it was the first toy store he's seen and with all the noises and bright colors he was very excited by it all. We played with an electronic drum machine and a remote control dinosaur and crocodile.

Nicolas is sitting up alot now so we splurged and bought this stacking toy which he loves. :-)

TIA MABE!!! POWER TO THE NIÑOS!!!

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VIDEO CLIP! (August 3,2005)

Martha's sister Mabe (pronounced mah-bey) arrived last week and she has been spoiling him like mad. We don't know the outcome of all this over attention but I am sure he will be impacted for life. :-) So far we have been taking small daytrips to Boston and Mystic and etc. It's good to be able to get around and show him the world - some of which he's slept through.

This week we noticed that Nicolas is now getting more adept at crawling (still backwards mostly), flipping over on his belly and rolling onto his back, and sitting up wherever -which he likes alot. This morning we found him in his crib - climbing the side halfway up- he had switched on his Tiny Love mobile (courtesy of Sarah, Paul and Simon) and was very pleased with himself.

everything within reach

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VIDEO CLIP! (August 3,2005)


...now belongs to Nicolas.

Yes lately he's been grabbing things and touching anything that comes into range. I think it's because he makes them real by touching them. Like he's got magic powers or something. Which he does. Really. I mean to him its all magical I think.

My cousin Chris (that's Dr. Matarese to you) came to visit this past weekend to eat some seafood and see how he's doing - so we went to Newport to walk around and to Starbucks where Nicolas ordered a Mocha Frappuccino and some chocolate covered graham crackers - hee hee...well no...not yet. He's still content with a little white milky filled bottle. My mom is trying to get him to eat more solid foods but we are happy to have things take their sweet time. It seems like the whole experience is on high speed anyhow - Nicolas is now sleeping in his own room and in his own crib and that marks the end of a chapter that will not repeat.

Ah life... no wonder I'm downing Mocha Frappuccino.

:-)

and the livin's easy....

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NEW VIDEO CLIP! (July,11,2005)

This photo was taken this last weekend in Jamestown RI. We ate fancy ice cream in front of him and made him hungry for....more milk.

His stomach is still acting up which is making him crabby - sometimes. And this week we went to the doctors for an eye examination and he was very good while they put drops in his eyes and really squirmy later when they tried to look into them. Lately I find myself looking at the older photos of him in the hospital and wondering "how did we get through it all?" -- he's so different now. We can't believe he's real somtimes.

watch the video. it seems he has an ear for music. :-)

Mid-Summer's Dreams

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VIDEO CLIP! (May,30,2005)

Ah the middle of summer... YIKES!!!!
Where did it go? I am not even done with the mulching. Haven't been to the beach yet. Wait...we did go to Galilee last weekend. And we all walked the beach - didn't go into the water though - or wiggle toes in the sand. Does that count?

Nicolas has a stomach virus of some kind so we are sampling his poops for the doctor (sorry for that - TMI ) but hey that's life in babyland. He's been lots to handle - but has managed to be pretty good about it mood-wise. We went to visit the NICU in Boston where he was born early last week but most of his nurses weren't there - we will make another trip again sometime soon.

This week we have noticed that his hands are getting grabby. He pulls my glasses off now and shook one of the house plants yesterday with a grin. He also has begun to push himself a bit while on his belly and I forsee a time when hes crawling everywhere and using his powers for general chaos.

It will be a chaotic luau - he's dressed for it I think. :-)

How you feeling? (hot hot hot!)

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VIDEO CLIP! (May,30,2005)

WHAT A HOT WEEKEND. Wow. Nothing to do but water the plants and head to Newport and South County. First we went to visit my cousins who were having a yard sale and my cousin's daughters were there and were happy to touch a little baby. He enjoyed it mostly I think but as the heat bore down he got grumpy. Then after that we went to Newport to stroll around and look at stuff we can't afford anymore... like cool shoes. We tried them on and thought how we might look in them but in the end left them there. Next we went to Aunt Carries in Narragansett -- this is a great seafood shack -- for you non-Rhode Islanders -- and I tried several times to get Nicolas to eat a clamcake. No such luck.

Some thoughts:
1.Nicolas does NOT like the heat. Nope. He gets grumpy and refuses to smile
2.People are SO FRIENDLY when you have a baby in your hands. We were trying to take pictures by the dockside in Newport and 4 TOTAL strangers asked if they could take our picture. I have come to the conclusion it's due to Nicolas's charm. People are always giving us the "knowing smile" and holding doors open.
It doesn't suck. :-)

sunshine and giggles

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VIDEO CLIP! (May,30,2005)

This weekend we discovered our little boy can laugh. We hold his toys above him and shake them and then drop them and he giggles. It's really really addicting for us. And so we spent part of our weekend watching this phenomenon.

(sigh) Lately, I find myself concentrating on his face or his hands or his eyes and holding him up with my hands while he stands on my lap and hoping that I never forget any of it. He is growing and changing and Martha and I are realizing its all happening way too fast.

Some things we did this weekend: introduced him to the neighbors, took him for lobsters (which he didn't eat), let him help us plant shrubs (he managed the project for us - see picture above), coaxed as many smiles out of him that we could, and again, we watched him laugh at his silly parents.

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video (Mar,28,2005)